The 2013 Int'l Swimming Federation's (FINA) World Championships in Barcelona, which concluded Sunday, "have surpassed all predictions" that the Barcelona town council had made about the event's impact, according to the EFE. Barcelona Deputy Mayor Maite Fandos, who was also co-president of the event's organizing committee, said, "These World Championships have once again made Barcelona the worldwide capital of sports." Fandos said that the event sold "48% more tickets than expected," with the attendance of 267,000 easily exceeding the expected crowd of 200,000. Fandos: "We sold out for the opening ceremony, for two days of synchronized swimming, for two water polo matches and for four days of swimming events." Fandos added that the 32,000 in attendance for the synchronized swimming events "set an attendance record for a women's event in Spain." FINA President Julio César Maglione highlighted the "organizational and athletic success" of the event, calling Barcelona a "hospitable, touristic and beautiful" host. FINA, which spent €25M ($33.2M), has not yet completed its calculations of the money it made, but Maglione said, "I am sure, in any case, that the investment made by Barcelona and Spain has already been recovered, and then some. And what FINA spent also has been recovered thanks to the successes of these championships" (EFE, 8/4).
